Real freedom is not about controlling our experience, but about being free within our experience.

Better to have one moment of genuine meditation than to perform religious activities for a thousand years.

When you love someone, you have to have trust and confidence. Love without trust is not yet love.

The technique of self-observation is the technique of observing the reality about oneself at the experiential level.

Enlightenment is not a state of perfection but of authenticity.

Each moment of noting is a moment of purification, a moment of cultivating the path.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be miserable, expect something in return.

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

The trouble is, you think you have time.

When you generate negativity, you are the first victim of your negativity.

Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that's all that's happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness--life's painful aspect--softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person.

The most important thing in life is to know death is coming and to prepare for it.

Happiness is found in the simplest of things. It is not in the things you own, but in the love you share.

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

The root of suffering is not in the world outside us but in our own minds.

Happiness is not about getting what you want, but wanting what you've got.

Without darkness, there is no light. Without the path, there is no arrival.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Sleep is the best meditation.

Reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

The path of practice moves from faith through understanding to direct realization.

The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.

The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. This is the goal of Buddhist practice.

Misery ceases to exist when we stop reacting to sensations.

When mindfulness becomes continuous, the distinction between the observer and the observed begins to break down.

The view is like a lion - it cannot be led around by anything else. Meditation is like an eagle - it cannot be distracted by anything else. Action is like a madman - it is free from accepting and rejecting.

The essence of the teaching is emptiness and compassion. Without emptiness, compassion can become attachment. Without compassion, emptiness can become cold and distant.

The mind of the past is ungraspable; the mind of the future is ungraspable; the mind of the present is ungraspable.

The teaching of the Buddha is based on two truths: conventional truth and ultimate truth. Without understanding the relationship between these two, the deeper meaning of the Buddha's teaching cannot be understood.

The nature of everything is illusory and ephemeral, those with dualistic perception regard suffering as happiness, like they who lick the honey from a razor's edge.

The way to change others' minds is with affection, and not anger.